Control mechanism for air turbines



5 LLLLL STANTIN 1,757,039

May 6, 1930. L. CONSTANTIN C ONTR OL MECHANISM FOR AIR TURBINES Filed Dec. 16, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 6, 1930. L. CONSTANTIN 7,

CONTROL MECHANISM FOR AIR TURBiNES Filed De'c. 16. 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 May 6, 1930. 1.. CONSTANTIN 1,757,039 I CONTROL MECHANISM FOR AIR TURBINES I Filed Dec. 16, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented May 6, 1 930 umreor "STATE LOUIS coNs'TAN'rIN; on mm rmc ssmaba oe toimmmfee-1mm. ronrrnn- I BEAULIEU; or noani n, oren, FRANCE",

* CONTROL MECHANISM non Aimee- 1m Application filed name 1c, 1927, seri i vo. 240,500, anain France December 16,1926.- i

The present inveiitioir'has for itsobject.

to provide an apparatus by which windmill wheels and air turbines may be placed out 0t action during high winds. The said apparatus has a great power and operates in a reliable manner; it is of light weight and small size. c. i i V V V For this purpose I employ a doubleservo motor comprising firstly a small auxiliary wind wheel or turbine which supplies the power necessary to place the main wheel out of action, and secondly a wind vane device of a known type such that the said auxiliary wheel will'bethereby automatically turned ina direction inwhich it will furnish arela tive'lygreat amount of power.- 1 7 Finally the invention comprises the j disposition, between the arm of the wind vane device an'dfthe' movable casing of the auxiliary wi'ndmill wheel, ofa change speed box a'llowing to multiply by a certain 'coefiicient the displacement oi the windmill wheels cas ing; under the action of the wind-vane device.

Fig. 1 is a perspectiveview of an air tun bine providedwith the device foryori'entaring and putting the same-outof action according {to the present invention.

' ;Fig."2 is aside elevation with part sections. Figs, 3 and 4 are diagrammatic views adapted to explain the operation of the orientating device' Fig. 5 shows diagrammatically in vertical section and on a large scale tlie part. a or change speed box of Figs. land 2.

Fig. 6 is a section according to lineX- -X The casing 1 which contains.the mecha nism of the main turbine 2 is rotatable with respect to a'stationary pedestal 4i (Fig. '2) supporting thewholedevice, and carries a secondarycasin'g 5 bymeans of brackets 6' and Tallowin'g the saidcasing 5 to rotate with reference tothe main casing 1 when. it is actuated'by the wind vane device 8 of the Constantin type in :the conditions which will be hereinafter specified.

The secondary ca'sing-5 carries on its turn the shaft ofthe auxiliary windmill wheel or air turbine :9 keyed to a first bevel gear wheel '10 which,i.throughthemedium of the secondsupport 4. The airturbine 9 whose blades are flat and inclined at 45.w-ith reference to its axis of rotation, revolves in 'the one or't-he other direction according as to whether it is struck bytlre wind from the front to the rearor fromthe rear to tliefront. Thus it turbine 9.. revolves under the actio'n'oi the parallel sidesof a double trapezoid articulated at its "four apexes and formed arms 25, 26,25 26 27 and so.

The ar'ml30 of this trapezoidwhich is by the b PQ- site the one on which the surfaces are mounted, carries 'on its extension a platelG for placing the turbine out of action and a spring '18,

elastically connecting the arm 30 to the main casing 1 through the Inediurn'of a rigid" arm 19, this spring being so calculated that when the wind normally strikes the plate 16, this arm will begin to extend but when the wind has exceeded a certain intensityat which theplacing out of action of the main turbine2 is totake place.

Thefarm 25fand the upper arm 30 are con-I n'ectedwith a collar '15 loosely mounted on the auxiliary casing 5- and; as shown by Figs. 1

and 2'and on a large scale in Fig. 7, a change speed box a is arranged between the arm 25 c of the wind van'ejdevice 8 which orientates the windmill-wheel 9 and the casing or support 5'of the said wheel, this change sp'eed b'ox transmitting at a given ratio the revolution oftlre arm 250i the wind vane device 8 to the casing 50i an; auxiliary windmill wheel 9.

In order to understand the operation of the device forming the object of the invention, the same being considered an orientating device, let us first suppose that the change speed box a has been removed, as in Figs. 3 and 4:, and that .the arm is rigidly connected to the casing 5,so that the pivotalmotion of the arm according to a certain angle will deter-,

the arms 25 and 26 will occupy'with reference to the main casing '1 the relativeposition whichis shown in dash and dotted lines in :mThe. operation of the orientating device which has just been described is then as fol lows '(Figsp3 and 4:). Let us suppose that thewind-which first came in the direction of the arrow 17 for which the turbine was orientated now comes inthe dllI'GCElOILOf thearrow 17 the supporting trapezoid ofthe wind vane device 8 will be distorted so that the arm 270i saidwind vane device willbe perpendicular to the direction 17 and will have the position which is shown in full lines 'in .3. But, as the secondary casing 5 of the windmill wheel 9 is connected to the arm 25, that is to say as the anglela indicated in Fig.

- V 3 is constant, the windmill wheel 9which first occupied the position. shown in dash and dotted lineswill assume underfthe action of the wind vanedevice theposition shownin full lines." In this new position, as thewindmill wheel is not in the direction of the wind,-t-he, same willibegin to revolve and: will in virtue of its rotation displace th'einain casing 1 and consequently the turbine2 in the direction of thearrow. 17K .The windmill wheel will thus revolve until themoment when the turbine 2 will be perpendicular to the new direction of.

t'hewind"1 7 ,-(Fig. 4) at this ,inoment, in fact, the said turbine 2 being orientated and havingassumed the position shown in Fig. 1,

it is quite obvious that the windvane device 8.

will vtake with reference to the movable .head 1 its initial position of equilibrium corresponding to thefirst position shown indash and dotted lines ll'l cFlgfif r The windmill wheel 9 will then beparallel tothe direction of the wind 17 andfthis state of things will be maintained until a new: change in thedie rectionof the wind takes place. 1

However, it may happen thatthe wind, after ceasing to'blow fora certain time, will again commence 'to blow,'but now proceeding from ajdirection at about degrees from the 1-ccedinsd eti9n a cordin t h th air wheel was placed, and since the arms 2526 of thewind vane device 8 cannot in practice take an inclination which exceeds given value, the. air wheel 9 W111 no longer be situated in the proper direction, and will not receive thewind upon the proper face to beactedupon,so that the-said. wheel will .turn in the contrary direction from what is necessary to properly dispose the main air turbine 2;1This rotation of'themain turbine in'the contrary direction to .what is required will take place untilpagiven position is atmined, and it will be'then reversed in virtue into the contrary'positiomso that the wheel 9 will continue to turnzalternately in one direction and the other, without taking its correct and'balanced position according to the directionof the wind at any time.

- To obviate this defect, I dispose in', the

apparatus shown in Figs. 1. 2 and 5, and be tween the arm 25 of the wind vane8 which turns thewhcel 9 and the support 5 of said wheel, a change-speed box 'a'which imparts at a given, increased, speed the rotation of .otthe udd nti rains ft n device .1-

the arm 25 of thevane device 8 tothe wheel '9, sof-that even when the vane device 8 is placedinits positionof maximum deflection,-

thewheel .9 will always offer the .properface to the windwhich is necessary; tocause the rotation of the wheel base 11in the proper direction. i As shownfin 2 is suitably placed, the ,wheel 9f'is now situated in a planeparallelwith the direction of the wind, and the vane .device8 is .so

Fig, 2 when the mainturbine.

arranged that the arms 25 26,will besym-,

metricalwith reference to the middle plane of the said vane device. When thew-direction of the windchanges by a, certain angle, the vane device will move in such manner that the bars 27 connecting the fiat me'mbers29' of the said .wind vane device will always he perpendicular to the direction of the wind; hence thesaid arms, chiefly the arm 25, will be subject to a deflection exceeding the angle bywhich the wind has changed, according to the principle of the Constantin-wind vane device. The arm 25 (Figl) is secured to the gear wheel 32 coacting with a gear wheel 33 mounted on a shaft secured to one: of the arms 30-01: the vframe of the said wind vane device; upon the-saidlshaftvis mountedrthe gearwheel34 coacting with a like wheel 35 keyedto the hollow shaft 5 of the said auxiliary wind wheel; said'hollow shaft contains the secondary shaft 12 whichimparts the rotation of the wind wheel 9 to thewind mill head'l through the medium ofa worm 39, a coacting worm wheel, a second worm 38 r and a toothed ring 14; secured to the topof the tower or likesupport of the windmill wheel. 9 Hence, for arotation of the arm 25, through an angle o, theliollow shaft 15 will turn through-an, angle" which is a multiple follows of w, this being 3 w in the apparatus shown in Figs. 7 and 8, and in this manner, even 1f the vane device 8 is situated 1n its posltion to rotate in the direction in which the wheel is placed against the wind.

. The operation of the devicefor placing, the turbine out of action and shown in the diagrams of Figs. 7, 8 and Qtakes place as Let us suppose that the wind in the direction 17 becomes strong. enough to stretch the spring 18, as shown in Fig. 7, and to bring the blade 16 to the position 16. 1 v

The wind vane device of the Constantin type has the property of placing itself constantly in a position such that its two surfaces-will always be parallel with the direction of the wind, i. e. so that the rigid rod connecting the two surfaces-will be perpendicular to the direction of the wind, so that the said device will assume the position 8,,and the auxiliary air wheel 9 connected therewith will assume the position 9. When acted upon by the air current at an angle which in 7 is about degrees, the said air wheel 9 through the medium of the gear shown in Fig. 1 will cause the whole' of the movable part to rotate about the axis 3 in the direction of the arrow 22. The rod carrying the said plate and the Constantin device will thus be perpendicular to the di-.

rection 17 of thewind, the said device will resume its middle position, the auxiliary wheel will no longer furnish power, andthe whole apparatus willthus assume the position of equilibrium, as shownin Fig- 8. At

this time the spring ,18 will be stretched to a greater degree than is shown in Fig. .3, and the main turbine wheel will be caused to disappear to a slight extent.

If the wind pressure further increases, the wheel will still further disappear, due to a sequence of operations analogous to the one mentioned, and if the force of the wind becomes sutlicient to completely stretch the spring 18, which is so disposed that it will be situated at the end of its stroke atthe proper moment, the whole apparatus will i assume the position of. equilibrium as shown in Fig. 9, and herein the mam turbinewheel and also the small auxiliary air wheel, will be made to disappear entirely.

Obviously, the constructionsherein described are given solely by way of example, and are susceptible of various modifications without departing from the spirit of the 'invention. a

For example, the said change-speed box may be mounted and arranged in a different manner from what has been represented.

The Constantin wind vane device may if sadapted tohc'ontrolzthe: rotationofsaid movable head and mounted inv a'casingwhiclris pivoted with reference; to saidinovable head,

-a;.c01lapsible, quadrilateral, orientatingsurfaces .on said quadrilateral,means ifor connecting said quadrilateral with the [pivoted casingoftheauxiliary turblne and means. in combination; with/said quadrilateralwfor ef- -fecting: the disappearing; of the main turbine :when the.

speed of; thewind considerably increases. r

2. In -..a device :having .a :lmainz. turbine 'mountedjup onaa head rotatable'withreference to a fixed member and an auxiliaryjturbine adapted. tolcontrollthe rotation of said movable head. and mounted in a' casing which is pivoted .with reference to said movable; head, a collapsible quadrilateral, two orientating surfaces on thesaid quadrilateral, means 7 for connecting said quadrilateral with the casing of saidv auxiliary turbine, a blade mounted on an extenslon of one of the bars of-said quadrilateral and a spring the ends of which are secured tothe movable head of said mainiturbine and to the said bar.

3. In a device having a main turbine mounted upon a head rotatable with refer ence toa fixed member and anauxiliary turbine adapted to control the rotation of said movable head and mounted in a casing which is pivoted with reference to said movable;

head, a collapsiblequadrilateral, two orientating surfacesonthe said quadrilateraha change speedbox inserted between said quadrilateral and said casing, a blade mounted on an extension ofone of the bars of said quad-- rilateral and a spring the ends of which are secured tothemovable head of said main turbineand to the said bar. Y I

4. In a device having a main turbine mounted upon ahead rotatable with'refere ence to a fixed memberand an auxiliary turbine adapted to control the rotation ofsaid movable head and mounted in a casing which I is pivoted with reference to said movable ingsurfaceson the'said quadrilateral and,

' said-casing and means in combination with said quadrilateral for effecting the disappearing ofthe main turbine when the speed of the windconsiderably increases. 4 5. In a "device having a main turbine mounted'upon ahead'rotatable with reference to a fixed member and an auxiliary turbine adapted to control the rotation of said;

head, a. collapsible quadrilateral,tw0 orientat I120 movable head and'mountedinacasing which is pivoted with reference tosaid movable head, a collapsible quadrilaterahtwo orientating surfaces on the said quadrilateral, means for connecting said quadrilateral with the; casing of said auxiliary turbine, a" blade mounted on an extensionnof one of the bars of said quadrilateral and yieldable means iorfconnectingsaid blade With the movable head of the main turbine. 1 I I '6. In a device having a main turbine mounted upon a head rotatable Withreference to :a'fixed member and an auxiliary turbine adapted tocontrol the rotation of said. 1' movable head and mounted ina casing which is pivoted with reference to said movable head, a collapsible quadrilateral,orientating surfaces on said quadrilaterahand means for connecting said quadrilateral With said pivoted casing-of the auxiliary. turbine In testimony :Whereof I have signed this specification. V v

a LOUIS CONSTANTIN. 

